Saligia
by demimonde
Summary: AU. He vowed vengeance when they cast him from the skies. And she...all she wanted was to live. In her moment of desperation, she let him sear his name across her heart and soul, unaware of what it truly meant and ill-prepared for the consequences. A war was about to be waged. Blood. Revenge. Love. Heaven...
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me.

…

**Saligia **

_The Beginning _

…

He fell to earth as time and memory flickered and burst. Deafening, maddening voices surrounded his body, encased every fiber of his fallen being with unforgiving words of damnation, of banishment that would last until the end of days. They echoed and pounded in his head, blurred his golden vision and drained his inner source of power.

His fists clenched. His body arched. White hot agony pierced right through him, pulling and ripping his senses apart. Vengeance burned his breaking soul. Darkness crept into his splintering heart. And fury so great consumed his very core.

In one blinding flash that ruptured the world, sent incredible ripples through realms unseen, he broke free of the twisting, accusing voices and choking constraints. He landed hard in a flurry of feathers, black powerful wings spread wide and furious. Looking to the weeping skies—star-kissed eyes drowning in unspoken truths and storming convictions—he released a soul wrenching, heart pounding cry of absolute anguish. Of his sweeping fury that echoed across time and space.

"I am being damned wrongfully!"

Thunder and lightning were his only answers. The voices had been unable to keep their hold and as his unrivaled power pulsed across his skin, he closed his eyes and sent them a message wrapped in blood promises and sealed with vengeance.

"Make no mistake. For this transgression against me, I will one day pay you all back in kind…"

**…**

…_five hundred years later…_

She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now as she coughed up blood and sucked in what air she could because breathing was so incredibly hard, she wondered if she was going to die out here all alone, just a few blocks from home.

In this frigid wind during the dead of winter, tears rolled down her temples. Wispy white rose from her bleeding parted lips. The stars had always looked so bright in the park but now…now they looked almost frightening.

She wasn't ready to go. There were so many things she still wanted to do, to experience, and taste. She was a good person. She loved hard and gave love unconditionally. She helped others as best she could. And she was a caring friend; an even better daughter and sister too.

_Not yet. Not yet. Not yet._ She choked on a bloody sob.

A shadow fell over her and though her vision was fuzzy and blurred by blood and tears, she could tell it was a man. Shrinking into herself, she shook her head, chest seizing with uncontrollable fear. What happened minutes before flashed through her mind. The knife impaling her chest. Over and over again. Screams. Agony. No time to escape or fight back. Her body convulsed and she was choking on her own impending death.

Warm fingers caressed the side of her bruised face, trailed down the cold curve of her neck and stopped just above her dying heart.

"They need you…" He drew closer, his fingers stroking her skin and it felt as if he was touching her escaping soul.

This silver haired stranger with a voice like fine velvet and eyes like the stars above them…_was he here to save her?_

"Do you wish to live?"

She struggled to move, to do something to convey that _yes, yes she did_. All she managed were more painful tears.

"I will need something in return."

_Anything_.

His eyes seemed to glow brighter. Bending forward, he whispered in her ear. "Your soul, your heart..._everything_."

_Take it_. She wanted to live so badly it hurt bone-deep. She'd give anything, belong to anyone if that's what it took.

"As you wish…" He crushed his lips hard against hers, his hand above her heart and it seemed as if he was reaching into the very center of her being. Her body arched up, her gasping scream swallowed by his plundering mouth. And like a raging sea, her twenty-three years of living crashed and thundered all around her.

Her birth. Her parents. Her first loves and first hates. Her father's funeral. The sorrow and pain. The first time she held Souta and the last. That time by the shimmering beach to another at the shrine. Her lowest lows and highest highs. Her kaleidoscope life danced in dizzying waves and flashes, flooded all she knew until she was submerged in the overwhelming intensity. And through it all, uncontrollable flickers of a life that wasn't hers weaved in and out like a fine silver thread. Stitching and mending until she could not help but close her eyes and cry at what could only be _his_ memories.

She distantly wondered if he realized what he was sharing. How intimate and frightening this actually was. A sharp raspy exhale left her lips when her very essence was seared from the inside out. And then there was a gentle pull and push, a quiet calm that cascaded over her branded heart and soul.

"You belong to me now, Kagome…"

**…**

"We lost her."

Touga spun around, a fist clenched to contain his ire. "How?"

They shifted uncomfortably. To speak _his_ name would be inviting unknown, possibly violent reactions.

"_How_?"

But to _not_ speak his name would be inviting the certain wrath of their esteemed Arch General. "Sesshoumaru."

Touga went still at the mention of his fallen son's name. There was always deep anger, deep regret when he thought of Sesshoumaru's banishment from the skies. Even after five centuries, the fateful event still bled like a fresh, open wound.

His archangel of a son, accused of unholy crimes Touga could do nothing to refute. He'd been overruled by the Arc Noblesse and forced to watch his eldest condemned and then cast from the heavens. They had all been taken aback however—he, more so brimming with pride—when Sesshoumaru had broken the bonds of constraint. His power and immortality had failed to be stripped.

This was the first time he'd heard anything about his rogue son since his descent.

"Has the Arc Noblesse—"

The doors to his private sitting room burst open and really, Touga should've expected them.

"Your son has made a mockery of us all!"

"It was _my son_ you all let hang and threw down to Earth. Do _not_ come into my sanctuary and defile it with the Arc Noblesse's failures." It was always a test of his patience when dealing with these bastards who were blind to all but their own ideals.

Ryuukotsusei held back a snarl. "He has taken the next Seraphima Solare."

The full significance of what Sesshoumaru had done finally dawned on him. He hadn't been aware of the woman's status…who she would become once she walked through the gates. "Sesshoumaru's fallen. I no longer have any jurisdiction over him or his actions."

"Send down the Exousia."

Touga glanced at the tall, black-haired Arc Noblesse and then let his amber eyes slide to the other three. "You cannot be serious."

"We will not overlook this imbalance he has caused."

"Do not be rash, Ryuu."

"You would strip your only remaining son of his birthright?"

Touga's eyes morphed to a steely gold. "Tread carefully, gentlemen. It was because of your decision to banish Sesshoumaru that we find ourselves in this situation."

"It was the crimes he committed—"

Touga's fist came down and nearly cracked his heavy oak desk. "Those _crimes_ were never proven! That the Arc Noblesse believed a tainted woman over a proven archangel…" Growing increasingly annoyed, Touga pinned them all with a hard, icy glare. "The Exousia are under my command and no other. Do not think for a moment I will send them on some fool's mission."

Ryuu's ferocity threatened to crack the thin veil of civility his patrician features strained to keep intact. "This is not over, Touga. By the end, Sesshoumaru will be burning in an eternal hell where not even demons will dare to walk." The Arc Noblesse stormed out, leaving Touga in the ensuing silence.

"Your orders, my lord?"

"Send for Inuyasha." His high guards bowed before leaving to summon his youngest son.

Born every five hundred years, the Seraphima Solare was coveted by the archangels. She was the bringer of life and light. The jewel in the heavens and hope for balance across the shifting cosmos. Her presence was needed, ached for. But now everything had been thrust into a discordant rhythm with his son, his very flesh and blood, at the forefront.

"What will you do, Sesshoumaru?"

Dark storm clouds rumbled in the distance, as if echoing Sesshoumaru's deep anger and the vengeance he'd vowed to take when he was thrown to the mortal realm. Touga only hoped his eldest knew the consequences he was about to reap.

**…**

…_to be continued_…

**…**

-demimonde


	2. Heart of Hearts

Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me.

…

**Saligia **

_Heart of Hearts _

…

She woke to the soft crackling of a fire and to the flickering shadows of a dark bedroom where moonlight streamed in from wide, crystal clear windows. It didn't take her long to realize this wasn't her room or her bed and that the soft sheets so warm beneath her weren't a pale yellow but a stark white. As her dull memories sparked to life, Kagome snapped up, wild panic grabbing a hold of her heart…_her heart…_

She glanced down at her naked chest and felt for the deep knife wounds that should've been there but weren't. Her fingers, shaky and clammy, skimmed across her skin and found no lingering signs of injury. Her frantic mind worked to put all the hazy pieces together as she grew increasingly alarmed.

She should be _dead_.

Her hands came up to grip her midnight hair, crisscrossing emotions inundating her every sense until she felt like _screaming_. She was on the verge of losing it. Everything was blurring, closing in, sucking the very breath from her lungs. The pounding in her head…louder and louder, as if she was being ripped apart from the inside out.

It took her a moment to realize that she really was screaming. That the heart wrenching, soul deep cry was coming from her lips and not from a nightmare she was trapped in. A pair of arms suddenly clamped around her like steel. Kagome struggled like a madwoman, knowing in her heart of hearts just who this man was. Her hands pounded on his bare chest, refusing to believe what she knew to be absolute truth, what was conveyed to her the moment his soul touched hers.

"I want my life back! I want my home, my family!" she cried. "I don't want this…I just want to go back…" Kagome looked up, fraught with hopelessness and deep loss. Though she knew she should be struck breathless by his silver, ethereal beauty, she couldn't find it in herself to be swept away. His gold eyes were so cold…an icy world apart. It left her yearning for sunshine, for warmth. _What had she done?_

"You wanted to live. This is the price you pay."

…

She was a means to an end. His way back into heaven where he would finally obtain his vengeance, feel and taste the blood he so craved. There would be no stopping him. Not even she would get in his way.

Sesshoumaru's long, tapered fingers whispered down her tear stained cheek as she slept a fitful sleep. His Seraphima Solare. His promised bride and the one he'd been searching for for the last five hundred years. She'd been a beacon in the dark the night of her almost death. Her soul had been so bright. The pull magnetic as he found his way to her just in time to claim her as his. They were soul bound. His very essence scorched across hers in the most angelic of ways.

But she had always been his to begin with. Had he not been unjustly banished from the skies, they would be celebrating their union with the others. They would be—his hand clenched and he stood, inherent grace in every movement he made. Everything had been taken from him. His home, his very way of life in the heavens had been ripped away because of some lying guardian and the Arc Noblesse's refusal to see through her devilish schemes.

Anger simmered just beneath his iron tight control. They would all feel as he had. Cast from the skies, forced to walk alone among these fleeting mortals...Sesshoumaru reined in his inner turmoil and let his greed for retribution take its place.

Kagome stirred and drawn to her small movements, he rested his eyes on her, feeling the tension slowly leave his body.

She was a means to an end.

…

Kagome met him in the dining room the next day freshly showered and clothed in a pair of form fitting jeans and long fluffy sweater she'd found on the bed. He stood by the floor to ceiling windows, a cup of tea in hand and casually dressed. The scene was oddly mesmerizing, peaceful even. Broad-shouldered with a tapered waist, he was breathtaking in the morning glow. But then what fallen angel wouldn't be?

His existence had been burned across her soul. What he wanted her to know told through lips and touch. She knew what he was. It was an uneasy fact, one she was still grappling with but couldn't deny. Her heart _knew_ and she'd never been one to ignore the trappings of her heart. Her mind might've been telling her one thing, but inside, weaved within her soul, there was no doubt. He'd brought her back from the brink of death. It occurred to her that this seemed incredibly surreal. Just days ago she was a university student about to graduate. Granted, her life had never been normal, but she'd gotten past that, or so she thought. She should've known better.

"I want to go home."

Sesshoumaru tossed her a glance from over his shoulder. "Eat." He motioned to the decadent display on the cherry wood table.

"I want to go _home_," Kagome repeated with more force. As intimidating as he was, she refused to bow down.

"What do you expect to find when you get there?"

"My life…the way it should be."

His eyes hardened before he placed the ceramic cup down and walked towards her. He stopped right beside her, caressing the side of her face with the back of his hand in a deceptively gentle gesture. "You will not find what you are looking for."

…

Kagome took the shrine steps two at a time, every emotion and thought bent on reuniting with her family. Emerging on the shrine grounds, a smile curved her lips as she breathed in the familiar scent of incense and wood.

"Okaa-san…jiijii…Souta…" she breathed excitedly, taking a few steps forward.

Someone ran past her dressed in a blue uniform. "Okaa-san! Ojii-san!"

The shrine door rattled open and jiijii stepped out, followed closely by her mother whose warm brown eyes flooded with happiness.

"Kikyo!"

Kagome took a step back in stunned silence, her world tipping on its axis while she watched her mother hug a daughter who wasn't _her_. "Okaa-san…" Her throat tightened, shock ripping an inconsolable hole in her very human heart.

As the wind whispered through the trees she knew so well, Kagome could only stare brokenhearted.

"Are you visiting?"

Kagome tried to hold back her tears. _Souta_. She turned to him, her control slipping. _You know me right? Please say yes..please don't make this even harder. _"Yeah…"

He smiled. "Don't forget to buy a souvenir from my jiijii. He's the old senile coot over there. He sells a bunch of worthless sutras, but he means well."

She nodded and felt this world around her fall away. He waved goodbye before running off.

Their laughter swayed with the leaves. Their voices played on the wind. And Kagome fell deeper and deeper into despair. This was _her_ family. This was _her_ home. She felt so incredibly wronged, so angry and grief-stricken that she wanted to scream. To tear her heart out because what was life when she had nothing? What was life when it had all been taken away in the breadth of a moment? All because she wanted to live…

A gentle hand touched her shoulder. "Can I help you?"

A tear escaped. Kagome hurriedly wiped it away. "I…I was just leaving." She stifled a choking sob as her mother gave her that encouraging smile she cherished so much.

"Come back soon then. The shrine is always open."

Kagome nodded, her blue eyes blurring with unshed tears. "Good bye…" Giving her mother a watery smile, she turned around and fled down the mountain of stone steps.

Sesshoumaru waited for her at the very bottom but he was the last person she wanted to see. Kagome sped past him, the back of her hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs.

"It would have been better had you just forgotten," he said after her. "And then this could've all been avoided."

Kagome spun around, furious with him and with herself. All this could've been avoided too, had she just accepted death. "I don't need you to tell me, Sesshoumaru. Just…" She couldn't hold back her crying anymore and no matter how much she wiped her tears away, they kept falling.

"…just leave me alone. You've done enough." She hurried away, a crumbling mess and barely able to stand.

Kagome didn't know how far she wandered, but coming across an old playground she wearily slid onto the dusty swing. Sobs wracked her body and she tried to stop, tried so hard to smother the pitiful sounds but it _hurt_. Everything hurt _so much_. As if someone had reached into her chest…

Her hand fisted over her beating heart, hating it, wanting to rip it out herself because then she wouldn't have to feel the pain of losing everyone she loved.

'_You wanted to live. This is the price you pay.'_

Everything came with consequences. Would she able to handle hers? Kagome leaned her head against the chain, gently swinging back and forth. She had wanted to live so desperately that night. Nothing else had mattered so long as she got to _live_.

But what was life without others to share it with?

Kagome struggled to stem another onslaught of tears. She inhaled, breath hitching and emotions conflicting. She was alive though, wasn't she? And regardless of how angry, how devastated she was Kagome couldn't deny how grateful she was either. Sesshoumaru had saved her and though wary of what the fallen angel had planned for her, she was indebted. An irrefutable, terrifying thought.

Her pathetic self-consoling didn't ease the stinging blow of loss however. Hopefully the stifling sorrow would ease into a dull ache and then that too, would eventually fade. In time…Kagome closed her eyes. In time everything would heal. Face upturned to the clear winter sky, lingering tears traced paths down her face, her emotional pain still so very sharp and bittersweet.

Footsteps sounded behind her. "Your memories of them…I can make it all disappear."

Kagome swung around, incensed. "_No_…never."

"Why?" Sesshoumaru whispered, a hand reaching out to brush away a stray tear.

"Because…" He looked genuinely curious, making Kagome wonder how long he'd been on Earth and if he bothered to mingle with and understand humans at all. _He's a fallen archangel. It probably wasn't by choice either. _Her anger deflated a little as she realized this was probably his misguided attempt at making amends. But why would he even bother?

Sighing, she glanced at the sky. "Because I'd rather have something than nothing at all."

Sesshoumaru didn't question her further, yet she had a distinct feeling he understood what she meant.

"Come." He held out his hand, so elegant and much larger than hers.

"Where are we going?"

"Home…"

Kagome caught his gaze and for a moment, she thought she'd glimpsed a small crack in those hard, distant eyes. She didn't know what was going to happen. Couldn't even fathom what was in store for her now that her heart and soul belonged to an archangel. But with him around, maybe life wouldn't hurt so much.

With nothing left to lose, Kagome took his hand.

…

…_to be continued…_

…

-demimonde


	3. Seraphima

Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me.

…

**Saligia **

_Seraphima _

…

Sesshoumaru watched her converse with Bokuseno, his groundskeeper. He was a wise, patient man with deep fathomless eyes. Graying around the edges, he had an inherent ageless quality about him and being an immortal, it was a trait Sesshoumaru appreciated.

She laughed, the sound soft but a little strained. It brought a smile to Bokuseno's thin lips and as he showed her the various winter flora in the expansive garden, Sesshoumaru saw some light return to her eyes. He found he preferred it that way. For some reason, the sight of her tears and the sound of her broken heart hadn't sat well with him. Normally aloof and oftentimes impervious to such human reactions, Sesshoumaru found himself wanting to ease her hurt.

His Seraphima Solare—and yes, she was _his_—had been so acutely devastated by her loss. But it was the best way, he had assured himself. Erasing her existence all together from this mortal plane would brook no future complications. Yet, he hadn't been expecting such a strong reaction from her and that had been his error. Humans were overly emotional creatures after all. A strange sort of ordered chaos colored their lives.

But living such fleeting existences, how could they _not_ be the way they were?

Hindsight was always twenty-twenty and he should have learned from experience. His departure from the skies hadn't been the most peaceful either. She bent down to pluck a small blue flower, twirling it in her fingers before inhaling its soft scent. A tentative smile touched her lips as she hurried to catch up with his groundskeeper.

It was _her_. It was _him_. It was their soul nexus, the very core of their beings that were now connected in the most elemental, basic of ways. Sesshoumaru had touched her soul. He'd delved into her life, sifted through her memories as he forced a connection in her dying moments. He knew how naturally alluring she was. The love she so freely gave. Hers was a pure, resilient soul and he was beginning to understand why the heavens had wanted her.

However, their connection was growing disturbingly fast and he'd have to be blind not to see it…to _feel_ it. What made him grip the balustrade of his bedroom balcony and seriously question himself was the glaring fact that he didn't _want _to put an end to it. He wanted to _nurture_ this link between them and that in itself should have snapped him from the clouds and back into his pit of ravenous fury. He wanted revenge. He wanted immortal blood on his hands. He didn't want _her._ He didn't want to want her because he would ultimately destroy her. The one who had always been meant for him and only him would suffocate and wither away. And he would have no one to blame but himself.

…

He found her curled up on one of the large settees in the library. Nestled beneath a quilt and surrounded by piles of books and scrolls collected over the years, she lightly dozed in the candlelight. Taken in by her peaceful features, by the calm beauty she exuded, he lightly trailed the back of his fingers along her cheek. There was little he desired, but in this moment, he wanted nothing else than to lay beside her and wrap his body around hers.

Her eyes fluttered open and she started at the sight of him, dropping the book in her lap. "Sesshoumaru…"

"You were not in your bedroom."

She shook her head. "I wanted to do a little bit of light reading."

He glanced at the piles, quirking a brow.

"Okay, so maybe not so light…" she confessed. "I find it hard to sleep most nights."

"Bokuseno knows of some remedies that may be of use."

"Oh…" Kagome lapsed into silence, biting her lower lip. "Sesshoumaru?"

Deciding to humor her, he took a seat, taking in her fresh scent and her radiant warmth.

"What is the Seraphima Solare?"

Her expression was earnest. Those blue eyes flecked with silver, beseeching. Bokuseno must've let it slip. "It is who you would've become had you died that night and ascended." _My promised bride. My love and treasure._ "You are heaven's light, needed to keep balance and peace between realms and within the Garden."

"You took me instead…"

"You belonged to me."

Kagome looked at him, unknowingly shifting closer to his body. His eyes had become far away, his face an unreadable mask in the dim candlelight. "I saw your memories," she whispered. "When you saved me…"

Sesshoumaru turned to her, toyed with a lock of rich black hair with an unreadable expression. She was much too honest for her own good. Too trusting towards someone like him. He supposed it had been inevitable that she would glimpse his life as he did hers. The trapping of a soul nexus even he could not avoid. His hand curved around her neck and caressed the delicate skin there, tracing absent patterns.

"I don't know you, but at the same time, I do…here…" she murmured, hand over her heart and leaning into his strong touch. "Sometimes I feel as if we were always meant to be together…that there's more than just this." Kagome smiled then, shaking her head. "But then I think I've simply grown attached because you saved me."

"What you're feeling...it is a natural consequence of our bond," Sesshoumaru revealed.

She crawled into his lap then, lured by his touches and burrowed into his deeply masculine warmth. And he allowed it. He allowed it because it felt natural and right and a part of him didn't want to let her go just yet. She seemed to appreciate it. Bokuseno had hinted she was lonely. That he shouldn't leave her to fend for herself because it wasn't right to treat such a lovely woman thusly. _Silly old groundskeeper._

"What will happen now?" she asked, drawing back to look at him.

She made such an alluring sight then with her tousled hair and deep blue bedroom eyes. _Mine_. His hand trailed up her arm and along the smooth column of her neck before caressing the side of her face, tangling with her soft midnight locks. Sesshoumaru pulled her closer and brushed his thumb across her rose petal lips. Without another thought, he softly kissed her. Gentle. Cautious and feather light.

"We wait..." he murmured, touching his forehead to hers.

Later, as Kagome lay curled in his arms fast asleep, Sesshoumaru would question his selfishness and wonder if it was not too late to turn back time.

…

"We have to hurry!"

"Wait for me, Shippou!"

Spinning around as small wings flapped furiously, the young cherub grabbed Rin's hand and together they bolted to the golden obelisk that stood in the center of the Garden.

...

In the midst of an Exousia briefing, Touga and his archangels were interrupted by the abrupt arrival of two of his minor messengers. He arched a brow at their breathlessness, waiting patiently to hear what had them both in a panic. Unfortunately, his son lacked even a drop of the virtue in that thick head of his.

"We ain't got all day, Shipp."

The small cherub glared at Inuyasha before taking a deep breath. "We just saw a group of angels descend."

"A few were due to depart today. It's no surprise," Miroku chimed in.

"But they had armor and weapons!" Rin shouted before meekly hiding behind her close orange-haired friend as all eyes turned on her.

Shippou rolled his eyes. "They flew from the Tower."

_The Arc Noblesse. _Touga swept to his feet, his expression a sudden torrent of fury. So this was their response.

"They're going after Sesshoumaru, aren't they?" said Inuyasha, black wings rustling in agitation.

"Retribution. What he's done will not be overlooked. They probably have a kill order," Miroku stated, a note of dread edging his words.

"For _both_ of them," Touga added. He knew the Noblesse wouldn't have swept this under the rug but he also hadn't anticipated a descent behind his back.

"I'm heading down." Inuyasha spun around, expecting to hear an objection from his father.

"Take Miroku and Kouga with you. I will deal with the Arc Noblesse."

Surprised, both Inuyasha and Miroku stuttered, slack jawed. When it came to descending to Earth, it was rare for the Arch General to be so willing.

But then again, this was Sesshoumaru and the Seraphima Solare. This was blood and family. Rules and protocol be damned.

…

…_to be continued…_

…

**-**demimonde


End file.
